Community spotlight: Linda and David Kellalea | Landholders
Linda and David are enthusiastic participants in Koala Connections, an initiative run by the Tweed and Byron Councils and funded by the Commonwealth focused on planting and restoring koala habitat across private and public land.
"When we moved from Possum Creek and bought this place twelve years ago it was covered in bananas.
We cleared them, spent a lot of time reworking the soil and started planting native species.
Our place sits alongside the Pottsville Wetland Bushland Reserve which is 280 hectares of key koala habitat on the Tweed Coast. It’s flat and low, whereas our land is quite hilly.
What got us interested in koalas is that we only had a few big trees on our property and after a while they were being eaten out. They were just about dead.
The Council has planted close to a thousand trees and they helped us look after them for the first year. We couldn’t have achieved what we have without them.
For me, it’s about providing more food. It’s a food forest, and there are a lot of koalas around. Just the other day I saw a mum and bub run across the grass.
There’s a real pleasure in doing something for wildlife and it’s made such a difference to our lives knowing we are nurturing the earth and giving back.
Since we’ve started the reforestation, we’ve noticed the swamp wallabies coming back as well. We’ve got different possums, bandicoots, reptiles and birds.
I bought myself a new camera for Christmas and I’ve taken some amazing wildlife shots. I like turning something ugly into something beautiful. It’s like putting a soft stamp on the earth.”